[CPEO-BIF] Baltimore Air Coil chromium lawsuit, Merced, California

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Lawyers say plant leaked toxic chemical for years
By GOSIA WOZNIACKA, Associated Press
San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
March 29, 2011

Fresno, Calif. (AP) -- Company officials failed to alert residents  
and collect data about groundwater, air and soil contaminated with  
cancer-causing chemicals from a Central California manufacturing  
plant owned by a former subsidiary of drug maker Merck & Co., lawyers  
for nearby residents told jurors Tuesday in closing arguments of a  
lawsuit.

Attorney Mick Marderosian, who represents 2,000 plaintiffs, said the  
defendants - Merck & Co., Amsted Industries Inc., Meadowbrook Water  
Co. and Baltimore Aircoil Co. Inc. - didn't alert a Merced housing  
community directly across the street from the plant about  
contamination from hexavalent chromium, the chemical made famous in  
the film "Erin Brockovich."

The now-shuttered Baltimore Aircoil plant, which manufactured cooling  
towers, used the chemicals to pressure-treat wood from 1969 to 1991.  
Merck, which owned Baltimore Aircoil until it sold it in 1985 to  
Amsted, is leading the remediation effort. The plant was shut down in  
1994.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/03/29/state/ 
n161732D75.DTL

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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